Soul created in likeness of God

In response to Martin Hanson, November 3 column, who disputes the human soul because he believes that there is no empirical evidence. “The soul is what animates the body, the seat, so to speak, of human personality. The soul is the seat of our intellect and our will, including such aspects as consciousness, reason, memory, imagination, emotion and conscience.” — Father Ray Ryland.

In this life, soul and body are joined in intimate union. For this reason, whatever affects the soul affects the body, and vice versa. This union is so close that the body and soul aren’t separate natures within us; together, they form a single human nature.

God creates human bodies through the reproductive powers of human parents, but each soul is a direct creation and gift of God. (Catholic Catechism 366.)

At 16 weeks gestation pain receptors are present throughout the body of the unborn child. The science of embryology recognises that the child feels pain at least from 20 weeks. It is normal medical practice to give the unborn anaesthesia prior to intrauterine surgery. It is accepted that when a child is having its arms and legs torn violently from its body in an abortion, that it is experiencing pain. When an abortionist invades the womb with his catheter to destroy the baby, the terrorised baby retreats in frenzy to escape, its heart beat races, its blood pressure rises and its mouth is open in a silent scream.

A 2006 study from the International Association for the Study of Pain found that: “The available scientific evidence makes it possible, even probable, that foetal pain perception occurs well before late gestation.” This study states that pain perception develops in the “second trimester”, “well before the third trimester”.

The American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists concludes in a study conducted in 2012 that, “the basis for pain perception appear(s) at about 20 to 22 weeks from conception.”

There are 17 states in the USA that have passed legislation banning abortions after 20 weeks gestation on the grounds that the unborn child can feel pain.

The American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists have refused to accept that the child feels pain at 20 weeks in an abortion. Both these organisations support the killing of the unborn and are not going to allow science to get in the way of their ideology.

Martin Hanson claimed that the UN Human Rights Committee, in recommending that countries decriminalise abortion, had not mentioned the Convention on the Elimination of all Discrimination against Women in support of this objective. That is correct, however he should be aware that this important convention is repeatedly misquoted and used to pressurise member countries like New Zealand to take the killing of the unborn out of the Crimes Act, where it is a crime to kill an unborn child, and make the killing a “reproductive choice for women”. The Human Rights Committee, like many other UN committees that are not appointed by the General Assembly, has been infiltrated and taken over by the pro-abortion lobby.

They claim correctly that 47,000 women die every year in unsafe abortions. Every death is a tragedy. If those advocating for the decriminalisation of abortion really cared about women, why are they not advocating for the 303,000 women who die in childbirth every year, i.e. 830 women dying every day, from unsafe births. All these deaths are preventable and 99 percent happen in undeveloped countries.

In response to Martin Hanson, November 3 column, who disputes the human soul because he believes that there is no empirical evidence. “The soul is what animates the body, the seat, so to speak, of human personality. The soul is the seat of our intellect and our will, including such aspects as consciousness, reason, memory, imagination, emotion and conscience.” — Father Ray Ryland.

In this life, soul and body are joined in intimate union. For this reason, whatever affects the soul affects the body, and vice versa. This union is so close that the body and soul aren’t separate natures within us; together, they form a single human nature.

God creates human bodies through the reproductive powers of human parents, but each soul is a direct creation and gift of God. (Catholic Catechism 366.)

At 16 weeks gestation pain receptors are present throughout the body of the unborn child. The science of embryology recognises that the child feels pain at least from 20 weeks. It is normal medical practice to give the unborn anaesthesia prior to intrauterine surgery. It is accepted that when a child is having its arms and legs torn violently from its body in an abortion, that it is experiencing pain. When an abortionist invades the womb with his catheter to destroy the baby, the terrorised baby retreats in frenzy to escape, its heart beat races, its blood pressure rises and its mouth is open in a silent scream.

A 2006 study from the International Association for the Study of Pain found that: “The available scientific evidence makes it possible, even probable, that foetal pain perception occurs well before late gestation.” This study states that pain perception develops in the “second trimester”, “well before the third trimester”.

The American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists concludes in a study conducted in 2012 that, “the basis for pain perception appear(s) at about 20 to 22 weeks from conception.”

There are 17 states in the USA that have passed legislation banning abortions after 20 weeks gestation on the grounds that the unborn child can feel pain.

The American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists have refused to accept that the child feels pain at 20 weeks in an abortion. Both these organisations support the killing of the unborn and are not going to allow science to get in the way of their ideology.

Martin Hanson claimed that the UN Human Rights Committee, in recommending that countries decriminalise abortion, had not mentioned the Convention on the Elimination of all Discrimination against Women in support of this objective. That is correct, however he should be aware that this important convention is repeatedly misquoted and used to pressurise member countries like New Zealand to take the killing of the unborn out of the Crimes Act, where it is a crime to kill an unborn child, and make the killing a “reproductive choice for women”. The Human Rights Committee, like many other UN committees that are not appointed by the General Assembly, has been infiltrated and taken over by the pro-abortion lobby.

They claim correctly that 47,000 women die every year in unsafe abortions. Every death is a tragedy. If those advocating for the decriminalisation of abortion really cared about women, why are they not advocating for the 303,000 women who die in childbirth every year, i.e. 830 women dying every day, from unsafe births. All these deaths are preventable and 99 percent happen in undeveloped countries.

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John Fricker - 5 months ago
Blimey, 24 hours later and Mr Hanson hasn't rubbished you yet. He must be on holiday.

Martin Hanson - 5 months ago
Ken Orr never ceases to astonish. In response to my statement that there is no evidence for the existence of the human soul, he quotes the opinion of Fr. Ray Ryland, as if that carries weight. How many times does one have to say that an opinion is not evidence?

What people believed in medieval times was the result of hearing other people's opinions. It was the rise of the scientific method, based on observations, questions, and experiments, and above all the re-evaluation of previously held beliefs, that took us to our present state of enlightenment.

Ken Orr, despite being presumably happy to benefit from the scientific revolution, clings to the medieval view that on certain matters, opinions don't need to be subject to scrutiny and testing, but that's religion for you!